The Slow Lane

So we’re going back in time a bit for Tuesday… the entire reason for the vacation.. our big 3 year anniversary!!!!

We slept in too late and missed breakfast!! We decided to take advantage of the lunch menus at the seafood places. We ended up a Alioto’s. You can see Scoma’s from their 2nd floor dining area. I had a simple salad, a cup of clam chowder and half shrimp sandwich. Paul had clam chowder and some salmon steak. We were lucky that afternoon as we saw 3 sea lions in the little fisherman area. Apparently 1 of the lions was too aggressive for the group over at Pier 39 so he hangs out in that area by himself and a couple also may be seen near him. It’s rare for them to be in actual fishing area. Our waiter had a story about this particular sea lion and he was awfully excited and told us we were lucky. We did get at least one shot of them the last time they surfaced. Lunch was excellent!

After lunch we went downtown to pick up some things. I wanted a gift for our anniversary so we went to World of Charms and Paul got me a cable car in silver!!! We then got Paul some shoes, I went to Frederick’s of Hollywood for something special and to pick up Paul’s dinner jacket at the tailors. I took soooo long at Frederick’s that we had to call Chez Spencer to let them know we wouldn’t be there for half an hour after we were due. I was actually able to get ready in about 15 minutes and think I looked just fine. I forgot the camera so no pictures of us. We had the hotel call us a cab and they got us a nice Lincoln Towne Car. Dinner was simply magical. I had the tasting menu and started with oysters, fois gras, turbot, salad, cheeses and a warm chocolate cake. It all was accompanied by a wine chosen for each course. The last 2 were ports and I am just not a fan. So sad. Paul had asparagus with a truffle emulsion and roasted Sonoma duck with raspberry jus. He had some wine that was suggested to go with it. I also started off with a champagne cocktail and he had a mint julep that was verrry  strong! We had a really special night. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve made it!  I know we are a bit behind on blogging and uploading photos but our pay for internet turned off early on us

 

We’re at the Inn at Sonoma.. amazing place… I’m already suggesting it and we haven’t even been here more than a few minutes… Love you all!

 

Irene

After our long and very full weekend, Monday has already come and gone. Since Sunday’s are pretty quiet, we took advantage to catch up on some sleep. I work up around 8:30am and Paul was very hard to get up this morning. We headed to breakfast in our hotel as it is included. We’ve been having lots of fruit for breakfast lately and fresh squeezed orange juice.

We took the cable car to Lombard Street.. we walked down and then we walked up! There are 2 sides to walk up or down. One is twisty and one goes straight. It must be amazing living there. We saw 2 locals leave. They both looked excited to just be there as tourists were fascinated by what they saw.

After Lombard we walked down a steep hill where I almost killed myself. All of SF’s sidewalks aren’t really treacherous as each concrete slab is in great shape, well aligned, no jutting corners and even some stairs on sidewalks, except this one that I didn’t look at. I looked down every time we went down a hill so I wouldn’t have an accident and I was feeling more comfortable. I was looking at some flowers and homes and bam! I stepped off a concrete slab that was a little off. I didn’t fall but omg, my left leg bothered me the rest of today. We figured we’d get to Van Ness to get a cab (as the bus system is complicated). Major intersection and we only saw 2 cabs. We found the bus stop (killed 30 minutes doing all this). We went to their City Hall, arts around the area and saw the painted ladies! We went to the Alamo Park which was gorgeous. Dogs playing, children on the other side in their playground and the bathrooms I saw everywhere are nice looking with flowers and shrubbery. We then tried to check out Japantown before we did our Alcatraz Tour. We weren’t that hungry but we atleast got to see some of it. We got a cab to take over to the Pier for Alcatraz!!!

It was soooo warm today but as we found out, the bay was freezing. We went to the top deck to check out the whole bay and froze our butts off. I’d say it was in the 40s. We dressed okay but we could have had a jacket. Alcatraz is the weirdest place. The audio tour was great (although during 2 spots I got lost and one row of cells isn’t #ed). We got some post cards to send to our families, took some pictures and just learned so much. I really enjoyed it but wish we got more pictures. OOO one of the children of a guard who lived on the island came today for a book signing. I wasn’t that interested but it was still very neat!

When we got back from Alcatraz we took the F train to the Ferry Building for something to eat (last time we ate was about 10 am and it was now almost 5pm). The F train sucked. It jerked a whole lot and I almost killed 2 girls when I didn’t grab a pole in time! Ooops. We went to the Ferry Building and since we didn’t know much about it, we thought there were 2 levels. I was hungry so I got bitchy with Paul. We went to Taylor’s. I had a cheeseburger, sweet potato fries with a glass of red wine made by the owner of Taylor’s. Paul had fish tacos and onion rings with some kind of local beer (steamer?). Ferry Building’s inner restaurants without outside entrances closed at 6pm (geez, so early). We went to Caio Bella for gelato . I had pear sorbet with green tea gelato. I liked the combination. We then rushed to find the chocolate place I heard about for fleur de sel caramels. I also bought a combination box to try out later.
http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/recchiuti_confections.php

We returned to the hotel to freshen up and change. We had to get shopping. Paul needed a jacket for dinner tomorrow night as well as some new cologne and shoes. We only got as far as the jacket and cologne. He picked up a Oscar De La Renta that was a bit too large for him. We found out from the gentleman who helped us with the jacket of a tailor right across the way who was actually still opened at quarter to 9pm. He’s the only guy downtown apparently too! Paul is getting his sleeves taken up and if there is time, get the jacket taken in at the shoulders. It was actually cheaper than my mom’s seamstress! Interesting time shopping tonight. Macy’s has 2 buildings, one for women and one for men. Ridiculous.
We’re going back tomorrow to pick up the jacket, get me some new socks, maybe pick up a charm at World of Charms (I want a cable car charm). I also really want to try and get my hair done. We’ll be having our anniversary dinner at Chez Spencer tomorrow night. 3 years!!!!

I forgot to mention that in the middle of this blog, Paul went out to try In-n-Out burger. The fries are physically yellow, the burgers are physically very thin (which is obviously why they have double and triple sizes) and the chocolate milkshake was better than some other varieties (burger king/mcdonalds). Fries were average and we’ve had better burgers. The buger, fries, chocolate shake and diet coke were freakin’ $5.24 LOL. Cheapest place by far for what you get. Also, they come wrapped differently. The burger came wrapped 3/4 of the way up in heavier paper and the fries were in those paper basket things. Weirdest was the color of the fries LOL. Otherwise, good snack.

So that was our day. I think tomorrow besides shopping we’ll take a Trolley Tour or GoCar tour as well as try Citizen Cake!!!!! We may also hit up a more posh bar after dinner as we’ll be dressed very well (Jones dress, Steve madden peep toes for me). Our budget is going VERY well. I thought we’d really blow it but even after spending over $50 just on chocolate, we’re doing well ($80 total with Ghiradelli lol).

Thank you everyone for your comments and texts!

O and Tony, our flight was on time from leaving Philly… we just sat for a loooong time on the runway leaving. We still got to SF on time b/c we had a tail wind!!

Eat your heart out PA.. I heard you got snow showers and we were close to 70!!!

We ended up going out to a local bar. We met a guy who has been in SF for 2 years. Fun random conversation (name is Brian). Met another local Californian guy who bought us shots and a round. He was older (name Scott). Until the end of the night, it was great. I had Strawberry Stoli and Lemonade and a Tokyo Tea (long island but instead of coke, midori is used, so it’s 100% alcohol) I actually ordered 2 of those things. We did a shot of woowoos.

We woke up late so we missed the walking tour at Golden Gate so we rented bikes. Boy, we won’t do that again. We biked from the Wharf, over the Golden Gate bridge into Sausalito. Gorgeous place. Biking was horrible. I’m way too out of shape but I’d do it again. Paul and I got into a little tiff b/c of me stopping and double checking the directions. I’m also so slow. I hate the really steep hills and after slipping once, I walked down some of the scarier ones. Sausalito is GORGEOUS. We went through it, stopped for a little ice cream and some drinks (Chocolate Macadamia nut ice cream, iced latte and paul got a smoothie of banana, strawberrry and apple juice). We took the ferry back as the tickets were included with our Bike Tour. It was great getting out on the bay and taking a real break.

Paul is napping right now and we need to get some foooooooood. I think we’ll be getting some Salvadorian food or we might go up for some Indian near Ghiradelli square called Gaylord. I didn’t get to call Natalie and that makes me sad It’s about 8pm now back home. I hope everyone is doing well and feel free to leave some comments!

I’ll be posting a bit more later along with our new pictures.

Here is a link for our pictures that we shall be updating daily! We’ll also do our best to post about everything:

http://www.paulgarvin.net/gallery2/v/sanfran07/

Paul posted our 1st day on Preludeonline.com:

” Irene is getting ready so I figured I would post. Our first day of vacation was LONG. It was raining cats & dogs when we left Philly. The was airport busy w/ delays. Our flight boarded on time. But we had to taxi to BFE to take off and then wait in line. So we spent 45 min on the tarmac. The flight was short due to a tailwind in our favor. And the weather is beautiful here in San Fran.

We didn’t do a lot on our fist day here. We were both very tired. A busy week + getting up at 4:45am + the time zone adjustment. We got a shuttle to the hotel but our room wasn’t ready so we dropped of our bags and headed out for some food. We went to Scoma’s for lunch. Its only a few blocks from our hotel. Good seafood. I have been there before about 8 years ago on my uncle’s recommendation. Top 5 seafood I’ve ever had. ”
I thought the food was okay. I wish we had both ordered something different. Portions were HUGE. I would have enjoyed myself more if I had a bigger appetite and wasn’t soo exhausted.

” Then we went over to Ghirardelli Square and bought some chocolate to take back to our moms… and for us. Then bought some shot glasses for someone the requested them at the touristy Fisherman’s Wharf shops. So we got that out of our system.”

Ghiradelli Square is under tremendous renovations right now but it was still nice to do. Shot glasses are for you, Tony! I bought 3 so you can pick one and I can keep the other 2.
“Then we went back to the hotel and crashed for a while. Later we went to dinner at a place called Blue on Market St. in the Castro neighborhood. Excellent food. Haven’t uploaded to pics from that yet.

Today we are going to be doing a walking tour of Pacific Heights and Telegraph Hill. Prob be back online tomorrow to post more pics.”

Dinner:

I had the spinach salade with currants, craisins, feta lightly tossed in a lemon vinaigrette. Paul had some kind of pork (you can find the pictures in the link)

Saturday:

Cable cars!!!!!!!!! So much fun. Weather was so warm and great. Locals were all in jackets and sweatshirts. We thought it was too warm! Bought the 7 day Muni pass (cash only folks).
On the cable car:

Well.. we didn’t do either walking tour. I’m way too out of shape. We didn’t get to Telegraph Hill on time because of it. We walked up 3 blocks or so. Wow, try walking 3 blocks uphill all the way!!!
We did get to Coit Tower, paid $4.50 to get to the top. We had a great view of all the Bay Area. I was so impressed with the views. This place is truly amazing. We even saw some of the Chinese New Year’s parade floats.

We walked down another hill (it was so steep.. you can see pictures of Paul with his snapple and pictures of me with the tower in the background to truly understand)

We walked to Chinatown because their new year’s celebrations are going on!

We had some Dim Sum at The Pot Sticker. Most people probably pass by it since it isn’t on any of the major streets. Food was good but we didn’t have great service. We asked for tea but never received it. We had some pot stickers and some kind of pork rolled in pancake with onion. They didn’t have the pu pu platter so we were recommended that.

We heard from all kinds of people about the parade at 5:30pm. Well, we wanted to get back to the hotel to freshen up and use the computer to find the route. We walked from Chinatown back to the hotel through Little Italy where we passed many open air restaurants. Mona Lisa restaurant had lit up grapes all over the front. Also passed by many locations within stumbling distance where we can drink.

We are watching the Chinese New Year Parade on TV. I guess you guessed we didn’t get to the parade. We went over to Starbucks thinking they had free wireless, as most know, it isn’t. It’s the same price per day as hotel so forget it. We’ll pay the $10/day.

Tonight we’ll be going to Truly Mediterranean (trulymed.com) and probably getting some drinks somewhere. It’s Saturday night after all.

Tomorrow we’ll be going to the Golden Gate Bridge and doing a tour of Nob Hill.

Miss everyone but not really at the same time. This is a great place to be.